The Ghost of Karl Marx by Ronan de Calan

Garage publishing program in collaboration with Ad Marginem Press

The Ghost of Karl Marx by Ronan de Calan

Garage publishing program in collaboration with Ad Marginem Press

A brief and fascinating history of capitalism, Marxism, and class struggle for schoolkids.

The famous phrase “A specter is haunting Europe—the specter of communism” from The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in Brussels in 1848, inspired Sorbonne professor Ronan de Calan to write a children’s book where Marx himself appears as a ghost explaining his theory of economics and the cruelty of the market economy to schoolkids. The questions he poses to his young readers are similar to those of the recent Debt: The First 5,000 years by David Graeber: why do things have a price and what is the nature of money? But, unlike Graeber, de Calan’s protagonist believes that the evil Capital and Private Property can eventually be defeated—if the workers of the world unite, as the manifest encourages them to do.

Plato & Co. is a series of illustrated books about the lives and work of famous philosophers published by Les petits Platons. According to the French publisher, the series will be of interest to readers aged 9 to 99. The books were written by a group of contemporary French philosophers invited by the creator of the project: philosophy-historian and publisher Jean-Paul Mongin. Each story features illustrations in a certain style (for example, the drawings for The Ghost of Karl Marx allude to the works of Vladimir Lebedev). Engaging stories with vibrant illustrations explain the ideas of the key western philosophers in a playful and easy manner. These graphic novels are equally loved by French parents and philosophy and illustration enthusiasts.

Author

Ronan de Calan is a lecturer at the Sorbonne and the author of many publications on philosophy and the history of science.

Donatien Mary is a former pupil of Guillaume Dégé. Having moved from Strasbourg to Paris, he published his first book, The Last Dinosaurs, at Editions 2024.